Document processing to permit sharing of content by plural documents

ABSTRACT

A document processing apparatus which permits the sharing of a document element in a document structure while ensuring that any change to the content appears in the document element in each document sharing it. In a document processing apparatus for managing a plurality of documents each containing a plurality of document elements, a document element having content to be shared with a second document is designated from a plurality of document elements of a first document, and the content of the designated document element is defined as the content of a predetermined document element of the second document to be shared as common content by the first and second documents. Further, any document element having shared content is detected from a document when the display of the document is commanded, and is displayed in a distinguishable manner from other portions.

This application is a reissue of U.S. Pat. No. 5,778,398, which issuedfrom application Ser. No. 08/227,005, filed Jul. 19, 1994.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

The present invention relates to a document processing apparatus andmethod for managing a plurality of documents each containing a pluralityof document elements.

2. Related Background Art

In a past, a cut and paste method has been used as a method for defininga content of a document as a content of another document. For example,let us consider a case in which abstracts of a certain number ofarticles are to be prepared.

FIG. 2 shows article document data and FIG. 3 shows abstract documentdata. They follow the SGML description method in which a documentelement starts with a document element start symbol <xxx> and ends witha document element end symbol </xxx>, where xxx contains a document nameof the document element. A character string between the document elementstart symbol and the document element end symbol represents documentelement content. It is assumed that the document element comprises adocument element name and document element content. Other secondaryinformation may also be included.

Where content “defg, hijk” of a document element <abstract> of thearticle document data of FIG. 2 is to be quoted as is for the content ofa document element <itemparagraph> of the abstract document data of FIG.3, the existing content “lmno,” of <itemparagraph> is first erased, andthe content “defg, hijk” of the <abstract> is pasted in situs by the cutand paste method.

Alternatively, the foregoing may be realized by a hyperdocument method.In this method, a link to the content of other document data is pastedfrom a certain portion of a document and a button 47 shown in FIG. 4 isfilled in that portion. When the button is clicked, another windowappears so that the content of the other document data, to which thelink was pasted, is displayed.

However, in the cut and paste method, since the identical data arecopied and present at two locations as separate data, when a commonportion is corrected in either one of the article or the abstract and itis desired that content at both locations shall match, the samecorrection must be made for the other. This is not effective because thesame correction is repeated twice, and if done only once, the desiredconformity is lost.

Further, in the method of pasting the link, the above problem is solvedbut the button must be clicked in order to display the document data towhich the link was pasted, on the display, and where multiple sharing ismade in order to display it on another window than that on which thedocument data having the button embedded therein is displayed, thenumber of windows increases and the windows overlap. Thus, the displayis complex, and it becomes hard for the user to grasp the series ofdocuments.

Further, since they share the document data including the documentlayouts, it is not possible to display the respective documents withrequired layouts.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

It is an object of the present invention to provide a documentprocessing apparatus which permits a plurality of document elements toshare contents in respective document structures while maintaining theconsistency to the change of content.

It is another object of the present invention to prevent a contentshared by a plurality of document elements from being erroneously brokenby the edition to one document element.

It is other object of the present invention to discriminate sharedportions and non-shared portions when a document is displayed.

It is other object of the present invention to permit to determinewhether a subject to be edited is a shared portion or not when adocument is to be edited.

According to one aspect, the present invention which achieves theseobjectives relates to a document processing apparatus for managing aplurality of documents each containing a plurality of document element,comprising: designation means for designating, from a plurality ofdocument elements of a first document, a document element having acontent to be shared with a second document; and definition means fordefining the content of the document element designated by thedesignation means as a content of a predetermined document element ofthe second document.

According to another aspect, the present invention relates to a documentprocessing apparatus for managing a plurality of document eachcontaining a plurality of document elements, comprising; storage meansfor storing document data to be used as contents of the documentelements with file names; definition means for defining a command forreading the file content to each of the document elements to be used asthe contents of the document data, by using the file the name as anargument of the command; and control means for outputting the filecontent of the file name as the content of the document element when thedocument containing the document element having the command defined bythe definition means is outputted.

According to other aspect, the present invention relates to a documentprocessing apparatus for managing a plurality of documents eachcontaining a plurality of document elements, comprising; permissionmeans for permitting the sharing of designated ones of a plurality ofdocument elements of a first document with the content of otherdocument; and definition means for designating a desired one of thedocument elements having the sharing of content permitted by thepermission means and defining the content of the designated documentelement as a content of a predetermined document element of a seconddocument.

According to other aspect, the present invention relates to a documentprocessing apparatus for managing a plurality of documents eachcontaining a plurality of document element, comprising: designationmeans for designating, from a plurality of document elements of a firstdocument, a document element having a content to be shared with a seconddocument; separation means for separating the content of the documentelement designated by the designation means from the first document;first definition means for defining such that the content of thedocument element separated by the separation means is referred to by thefirst document as the content of the designated document element; andsecond definition means for defining such that the content of thedocument element separated by the separation means is referred to by thesecond document as a content of a predetermined document.

According to other aspect, the present invention relates to a documentprocessing apparatus for managing a plurality of documents eachcontaining a plurality of document elements by setting managementinformation in each document, comprising: designation means fordesignating, from a plurality of document elements of a first document,a document element having a content to be shared with a second document,setting means for setting new management information to the documentelement designated by the designation means; control means forcontrolling the document element designated by the designation means tomanage by the management information set by the setting means in placeof the management information to the first document element; firstdefinition means for defining to refer the management content of themanagement information set by the setting means as the content of thedesignated document element in the first document; and second definitionmeans for defining to refer the management content of the managementinformation set by the setting means as the content of the designateddocument element in the second document.

According to other aspect, the present invention relates to a documentprocessing apparatus for managing a plurality of documents eachcontaining a plurality of document elements, comprising: definitionmeans for defining one document element content as a sharing content tobe shared by a plurality of document elements; command means forcommanding the display of the document; detection means for detectingthe document element containing the sharing content defined by thedefinition means, from the document commanded by the command means; anddisplay control means for displaying the document commanded by thecommand means in a manner distinguishable from other portions of thedocument element detected by the detection means.

According to other aspect, the present invention relates to a documentprocessing apparatus for managing a plurality of documents eachcontaining a plurality of document elements, comprising: definitionmeans for defining one document element content as a sharing content tobe shared by a plurality of document elements; command means forcommanding the edition of the document element; discrimination means fordetermining whether the document element designated by the designationmeans contains the sharing content defined by the definition means; andnotification means for notifying to a user of the determination as tothe sharing content by the discrimination means.

According to other aspect, the present invention relates to a documentprocessing method in a document processing apparatus for managing aplurality of documents each containing a plurality of document element,comprising the steps of: designating, from a plurality of documentelements of a first document, a document element having a content to beshared with a second document; and defining the content of thedesignated document element as a content of a predetermined documentelement of the second document.

According to other aspect, the present invention relates to a documentprocessing method in a document processing apparatus for managing aplurality of document each containing a plurality of document elements,comprising the steps of; storing document data to be used as contents ofthe document elements with file names, in a memory; defining a commandfor reading the file content to each of the document elements to be usedas the contents of the document data, by using the file name as anargument of the command; and outputting the file content of the filename as the content of the document element when the document containingthe document element having the command defined by the definition meansis outputted.

According to other aspect, the present invention relates to a documentprocessing method in a document processing apparatus for managing aplurality of documents each containing a plurality of document elements,comprising the steps of; permitting the sharing of designated ones of aplurality of document elements of a first document with the content ofother document; and designating a desired one of the document elementshaving the sharing of content permitted by the permission means anddefining the content of the designated document element as a content ofa predetermined document element of a second document.

According to other aspect, the present invention relates to a documentprocessing method in a document processing apparatus for managing aplurality of documents each containing a plurality of document element,comprising: designating, from a plurality of document elements of afirst document, a document element having a content to be shared with asecond document; separating the content of the document elementdesignated by the designation means from the first document; definingsuch that the content of the document element separated by theseparation means is referred to by the first document as the content ofthe designated document element; and defining such that the content ofthe document element separated by the separation means is referred to bythe second document as a content of a predetermined document.

According to other aspect, the present invention relates to a documentprocessing method in a document processing apparatus for managing aplurality of documents each containing a plurality of document elementsby setting management information in each document, comprising the stepsof: designating, from a plurality of document elements of a firstdocument, a document element having a content to be shared with a seconddocument, setting new management information to the designated documentelement; controlling the designated document element to manage by theset management information in place of the management information to thefirst document element; defining to refer the management content of theset management information as the content of the designated documentelement in the first document; and defining to refer the managementcontent of the set management information as the content of thedesignated document element in the second document.

According to other aspect, the present invention relates to a documentprocessing method in a document processing apparatus for managing aplurality of documents each containing a plurality of document elements,comprising the steps of: defining one document element content as asharing content to be shared by a plurality of document elements;commanding the display of the document; detecting the document elementcontaining the defined sharing content from the commanded document; anddisplaying the command document in a manner distinguishable from otherportions of the detected document element.

According to other aspect, the present invention relates to a documentprocessing method in a document processing apparatus for managing aplurality of documents each containing a plurality of document elements,comprising the steps of: defining one document element content as asharing content to be shared by a plurality of document elements;commanding the edition of the document element; determining whether thedesignated document element contains the sharing content defined by thedefinition means; and notifying to a user of the determination as to thesharing content.

Other objective and advantages besides those discussed above shall beapparent to those skilled in the art from the description of preferredembodiments of the invention which follows. In the description,reference is made to the accompanying drawings, which form a partthereof, and which illustrate examples of the invention. Such examples,however, are not exhaustive of the various embodiments of the invention,and therefore reference is made to the claims which follow thedescription for determining the scope of the invention.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 shows a block diagram of a document processing apparatus inaccordance with an embodiment of the present invention,

FIG. 2 shows an example of article document data,

FIG. 3 shows an example of abstract document data,

FIG. 4 shows an example of content definition by link,

FIG. 5 shows an example of structured document data,

FIG. 6 shows a format of an object,

FIG. 7 shows a flow chart of content sharing,

FIG. 8 shows an example of display for sharing,

FIG. 9 shows an example of display at a time of selection of a documentelement,

FIG. 10 shows an example of structured document data after the sharingprocess,

FIG. 11 shows an example of display of document data after the sharingprocess,

FIG. 12 shows an example of display at a time of selection of a documentelement,

FIG. 13 shows an example of display at a time of selection of a documentelement,

FIG. 14 shows an example of description of a document data,

FIG. 15 shows an example of description of a document data,

FIG. 16 shows an example of object data,

FIG. 17 shows a format of a document element object,

FIG. 18 shows an example of object data,

FIG. 19 shows a flow chart of a sharing permission declaration process,

FIG. 20 shows an example of display at a time of the sharing permissiondeclaration process,

FIG. 21 shows a flow chart of a process for sharing a permitted content,

FIG. 22 shows a format of a share table,

FIG. 23 shows a flow chart of a sharing permission declaration process,

FIG. 24 shows an example of display at a time of the sharing permissiondeclaration process,

FIG. 25 shows a flow chart of a process for sharing a permitted content,

FIG. 26 shows an example of display of a dialog window,

FIG. 27 shows an example of sharing of a document element having anattribute,

FIG. 28 shows a flow chart of content sharing process,

FIG. 29 shows a flow chart of a shared content separation process,

FIG. 30 shows an example of structured document data,

FIG. 31 shows a store condition having a shared content separated,

FIG. 32 shows an example of structured document data having a sharedcontent,

FIG. 33 shows an example of structured document data having managementinformation,

FIG. 34 shows an example of structured data having a shared content,

FIG. 35 shows a block diagram of a document processing apparatus of anembodiment,

FIG. 36 shows an example of display of document data,

FIG. 37 shows a structure of article data,

FIG. 38 shows a structure of abstract data,

FIG. 39 shows a flow chart of a document display process,

FIG. 40 shows an example of display of abstract data,

FIG. 41 shows an example of a nesting structure of shared elements,

FIG. 42 shows an example of display when shared elements are nested,

FIG. 43 shows an example of display when shared elements are nested,

FIG. 44 shows a flow chart of a document display process,

FIG. 45 shows an example of display of document data,

FIG. 46 shows a block diagram of a document processing apparatus of anembodiment,

FIG. 47 shows an example of display when a shared portion is selected,

FIG. 48 shows an example of display when a shared portion is edited,

FIG. 49 shows a flow chart of a content update process,

FIG. 50 shows an example of display when the updating of a sharedportion is directed,

FIG. 51 shows a flow chart of a content update process, and

FIG. 52 shows an example of display when the updating of a sharedportion is directed.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

Referring to the drawings, construction and an operation of a documentprocessing apparatus in accordance with the preferred embodiments of thepresent invention are explained.

[Embodiment 1]

FIG. 1 shows a block diagram of a basic configuration of a documentprocessing apparatus in accordance with one embodiment of the presentinvention. Numeral 1 denotes a keyboard for entering characters andcommands, numeral 2 denotes a mouse for specifying an area on a displayand selecting a menu, numeral 3 denotes a CPU which executes variouscontrols and processes in accordance with programs, and numeral 4denotes a CRT for displaying data. Numeral 10 denotes a storage forstoring programs to be executed and various data, and numeral 20 denotesan auxiliary storage for permanently storing programs and data.

The storage 10 stores a document element detection program 11 fordetecting a document element and a content defining program 12 fordefining a content of a document element to a content of anotherdocument element, and the auxiliary storage 20 stores article data 21and abstract data 22. The storage 10 may be shared by the auxiliarystorage 20.

In the present embodiment, structured document data is handled as amemory image by an object database. FIG. 5 shows an example of articledata 21 and abstract data 22 managed in the object database. FIG. 6shows formats of a document element object and character object of FIG.5. As seen from FIGS. 5 and 6, a content of the document element is asequence of document element objects or character objects, and adocument element content storage location in FIG. 6 is a pointer to thedocument element content. In FIG. 6, a next pointer is one to a nextdocument element object or character object.

In the present embodiment, the content is defined by sharing the contentof one or more other documents. In the following description, it isassumed that article data is a source (src) that provides sharedcontent, and abstract data is a receiver (dist) that receives the sharedcontent, and that the content “defg, hijk” of a document element<itemparagraph> first appeared in the dist is shared by the dist to setthe content of the document element <itemparagraph> to “defg, hijk”. Theprocess is now explained.

Referring to a flow chart of FIG. 7, in a step S701, documents of thesrc and the dist are displayed on a window 41. FIG. 8 shows an exampleof display of the CRT 4. In FIG. 8, document data are displayed in thelayout which facilitate the watching by a user, although they may bedisplayed with document element start symbols and document element endsymbols mixedly interposed, that is, in the forms shown in FIGS. 2 and3. In the present embodiment, the documents of the src and the dist aredisplayed on one window 41. For example, article data which is thedocument of the src is displayed at the top of the window 41 andabstract data which is the document of the dist is displayed at thebottom. The document data of the src and the dist may be identical.Numeral 42 denotes a button for directing the execution of sharing by aclick of the mouse, and numeral 43 denotes a mouse cursor.

In a step S702, a document element of the src selected by a user isdetected. In a step S703, a document element of the dist selected by theuser is detected. The selection is effected by dragging the documentelement of the dist and the document element of the src by the mouse 2.FIG. 9 shows an example of display when the document elements of the srcand the dist are selected by the dragging. Hatched areas in FIG. 9 areselected. The process heretofore is attained by an SGML document editoron a conventional window.

When the share button 42 is clicked, in a step S704, a document elementcontent storage location of the document element object of the distdetected in the step S703 is changed to the document element contentstorage position of the document element object of the src detected inthe step S702.

In this manner, the content of the document element of the dist isshared by the content of the document element of the src. In FIG. 7, theorder of the step S702 and the step S703 may be reversed.

FIG. 10 shows the formats of the article data 21 and the abstract data22 in the memory (database) after the execution of the sharing processshown in the flow chart of FIG. 7.

The content storage location of the document element <itemparagraph>first appeared in the dist indicates, before the execution, the storagelocation of the object sequence “lmn . . .” as shown by broken lines,but after the execution, it indicates the storage position of the objectsequence “def . . .”. Namely, the document element content is shared bythe document element <abstract> of the src which indicates the samelocation.

FIG. 11 shows a status in which both document data are displayed whenthe content of the document element is shared. The content of the firstitem of the dist has been changed to “defg, hijk”.

As described above, in FIG. 8, the document data is displayed in a formwhich facilitates watching by the user although it may be displayed inthe forms shown in FIGS. 2 and 3, that is, with the document elementpunctuation symbols interposed. In this case, as shown in FIG. 12, thedocument element may be selected by dragging the entire content of thedocument element, or as shown in FIG. 13, the document element may beselected by dragging the entire document element.

Whichever form may be used for the display, when only a portion of thedocument element or the content of the document element is dragged, itmay be determined that the document element was not selected and thesharing may not be effected, or a minimum document element whichcontains the selected range may be selected.

Since the content is shared, if the content of abstract of the articledata 21 is changed to “defg, HIJK” for example, the content of the firstitem of the abstract data 22 is automatically changed to “defg, HIJK”.On the other hand, if the content of the first item of the abstract datais changed, the content of the abstract of the article data is alsochanged.

Since only the content is shared, the shared portion may be laid out as“abstract” in the article document even after the sharing, and it may belaid out as “itemparagraph” in the abstract document. Namely, they maybe displayed and printed out in the layouts which fit to the contexts ofthe respective documents.

[Embodiment 2]

In the Embodiment 1, the document data is explained as the object datain the memory although the present invention is not limited thereto. Forexample, other document content may be defined on the text data of FIG.2 or FIG. 3.

For example, it is assumed that the content of each document elementincludes a text sequence of the content or a special command. Thespecial command is “Yinput” which commands to read in a content of afile and has a file name as an argument.

When the sharing of the Embodiment 1 is to be effected, text data isdescribed as shown in FIG. 14. Namely, the “Yinput” command is placed atthe position of the content of the document element <abstract> and afile “sharedoc” is specified. The file “sharedoc” stores “defg, hijk”.In this manner, the content of the document element <abstract> may bedefined to the content of the other document. In order to execute the“Yinput” command, a method used in a document shaping system TeX may beused. Similarly, the “Yinput” command is inserted at the position of thecontent of the document element <itemparagraph> of the first item of theabstract data to specify the same file. Thus, the contents of thedocument elements of the both documents are shared through the file“sharedoc”.

The description may be made as shown in FIG. 15. The document data“defg, hijk” is previously defined and it is developed at the positionof the content of the document element <itemparagraph>. This may also beimplemented in the document shaping system TeX as a macro definingfunction. The description of the entity reference of the SGML alsocorresponds thereto. Namely, the definition may be made by previouslydescribing that the entity “sharedoc” is “defg, hijk” and describing“&sharedoc;” instead of the content of the document. The “Yinput”command may be inserted between the document element start symbol andthe document element end symbol and the content of the document elementmay be described in the file specified thereby. In this case, the objectmodel of the Embodiment 1 may be attained by using the text descriptionand the file.

The object model may be that shown in FIG. 16 in which the documentelement <itemparagraph> indicates the document element <abstract> but itactually indicates the content of <abstract>. As shown in FIG. 17, thedocument element object is provided with a flag to selectively indicatethe pointed object (sequence) or the content of the pointed documentelement object depending on the content of the flag of the documentelement object. In FIG. 16, when the flag is “1”, it indicates thecontent of the pointed document element object. When it indicates thecontent of the pointed document element object, the process may beterminated at that point to prevent the sharing if the pointed object isthe character object, or the flag may be neglected so that it indicatesthe object itself. In the Embodiment 1, when the document elementcontent is shared, there is no distinction on the object model betweenthe src and the dist, but in the present embodiment, the src and thedist are distinctive.

The sharing may be made through a share object. As shown in FIG. 18, apointer to the share object is stored at the document element contentstorage location in the document element object having a shared content.The share object points the document element content to be shared. Thismay be an object model version of the “Yinput” command in that thepointed item is the document element content (object sequence) or aspecial element which is one share object.

[Embodiment 3]

In the Embodiment 1, the windows system is used as a user interface forthe sharing. In the present embodiment, the sharing is made from acommand line.

The system configuration, structured document data to be handled andformat of the object are identical to those of FIGS. 1, 5 and 6 of theEmbodiment 1.

When the sharing is to be made, the user enters “share ddd [i] [j] sss[k]” from the command line, where “ddd” is a document name of the dist,“sss” is a document name of the src, and “i”, “j” and “k” are integersno smaller than 0, “ddd [i]” indicates the i-th object counted from 0 ofthe content of the document of the dist. Similarly, “ddd [i] [j]”indicates the j-th object of the content of “ddd [i]” when the object“ddd [i]” is the document element object. Only when all of ddd [i], ddd[i] [j] and sss [k] are the document element objects, the content of thedocument element object “ddd [i] [j]” is shared by the content of thedocument element object “sss [k]”.

For example, in the Embodiment 1, the document element <itemparagraph>of the first item of FIG. 3 is represented by “ddd [0] [1]”, and thedocument element <abstract> of FIG. 2 is represented by “sss [1]”. When“share ddd [0] [1] sss [1]” is entered from the command line, thesharing of the document is effected as it is in the Embodiment 1.However, the sharing is not effected if any of ddd [i], ddd [i] [j] andsss [k] is a character object. The sharing is also not effected when theinteger “i”, “j” or “k” is too large. It may be processed as the lastobject of the document element content (object sequence).

An operation process of the present embodiment may be that of FIG. 7 ofthe Embodiment 1 with the omission of S701. In the document elementdetection steps S702 and S703, the number of objects of the documentelement content is counted. If the object other than the documentelement object is detected, the process is terminated to prevent thesharing.

In the present embodiment, since the windows system is not used, thesystem may be constructed without regard to the specification of thewindows system.

[Embodiment 4]

In the present embodiment, the document element of the src is declaredas a “share permitted document element”, and in the dist, “to share thatdocument element” is declared to share the content of the documentelement.

A system configuration, structured document data to be handled and anobject format in the present embodiment are identical to those of FIGS.1, 5 and 6 of the Embodiment 1 except that a share buffer 101 isprovided in the storage 10.

The process in the present embodiment is divided into a process fordeclaring the share permission and a process for declaring the sharing.

FIG. 19 shows an event process when the share permission is declared. Ina step S1901, a document of the src is displayed on the window 41. Anexample of display of the CRT 4 is shown in FIG. 20. Numeral 44 denotesa button which is displayed to indicate the share permission. When theuser selects a document element by using the mouse 2, the system detectsthe document element in a step S1902, and when the user clicks the sharepermission button 44, the content storage location of the selecteddocument element is stored in the share buffer 101 in a step S1903.

Referring to FIG. 21, an event process when the content permitted in thesrc is shared by the dist is explained. First, in a step S2101, adocument of the dist is displayed on the window 41. In a step S2102, adocument element selected by the user is detected, and when the sharebutton 42 is clicked, the document content storage location of thedocument element object is changed to the content of the share buffer101 in a step S2103. In the step S2103, if the share buffer 101 containsnon-permitted value, for example, “0”, the process is terminated and thesharing is not effected. The process of the present embodiment has thusbeen described.

In accordance with the present embodiment, when the contents of a numberof document elements are to be shared by the content of one documentelement, the share permission is declared so that the pointers to thecontents of the document elements are stored in the share buffer and thedocument element of the dist is detected. Accordingly, troublesomeprocess of displaying both documents of the src and the dist andselecting the both document elements by the mouse are not necessary andthe process is efficient. Further, in the share permission declaration,the provider of the sharing document may specify the portion to whichthe sharing is permitted so that undue sharing by others may beprevented.

[Embodiment 5]

In the Embodiment 4, the shared buffer is used, but in the presentembodiment, the content storage location (pointer) of the documentelement for which the share permission was declared is stored in theshare table.

A system configuration, structured document data to be handled and anobject format in the present embodiment are identical to those of FIGS.1, 5 and 6 of the Embodiment 1 except that a share table 102 is providedin the storage 10.

FIG. 22 shows a format of the share table 102. The share table 102 is ina form of dictionary which comprises key words (variable names) andvalues (document element content storage locations).

FIG. 23 shows an event process when the share permission is declared. Ina step S2301, a document of the src is displayed on the window 41. Whenthe user selects a document element by using the mouse 2, the systemdetects the document element in a step S2302. When the user clicks theshare permission button 44, a dialog window 45 is displayed on the CRT 4in a step S2303. An example of display of the CRT 4 is shown in FIG. 24.When a variable name is entered from the dialog window 45, the contentstorage location of the document element selected in the step S2302 isstored in the share table 102 together with the variable name. If thesame variable name has already been registered in the share table 102,the value thereof, that is, the document element content storagelocation is updated.

FIG. 25 shows a process for sharing.

In a step S2501, the document of the dist is displayed on the window 41.In a step S2502, a document element selected by the user is detected,and when the share button 42 is clicked, the dialog window 46 isdisplayed on the CRT 4 in a step S2503. An example of display of the CRT4 is shown in FIG. 26. When the user specifies a variable name from thedialog window to indicate which document element content is to beshared, the document element content storage location (pointer) of thedocument element object selected in the step S2502 is changed to thevalue introduced from the share table 102 through the variable name,that is, the content of the document element content storage location ina step S2504. If the corresponding variable name is not detected in theshare table 102 in the step S2504, the process is terminated and thesharing is not effected. The process of the present embodiment has thusbeen described.

In accordance with the present embodiment, the document element forwhich the share permission has been declared can be stored by using thedocument element content storage location as a variable and the shareddocument element can be selected through the variable.

In the embodiments described above, since the document element contentis shared, the shared portion of the dist is changed when the sharedportion of the src is changed so that the change may be made whilekeeping the consistency of the document. Other information than thedocument element such as the document element name is not shared butonly the content of the document element is shared. Accordingly, even ifthe sharing is made with the document element of other document, thesharing may be attained without changing the logical structure of thedocument currently handled. Namely, in the article document, the sharedportion may be handled as the abstract and in the abstract document, theshared portion may be handled as the itemparagraph. Accordingly, asshown in FIG. 11 of the Embodiment 1, it may be laid out as the abstractof the article document or the itemparagraph of the abstract document.

When the document element has an attribute, it may be changed withoutchanging the attribute value as the document element name is. FIG. 27shows an example thereof. In FIG. 27, a patent document and an articledocument are shown and both share a content of a document element <fig>.The document element <fig> has an ID assigned as an attribute. Adocument element <body> describes a drawing actually outputted. Thedrawing is drawn by sequentially outputting symbols (characters)surrounded by characters “ ”.

In FIG. 27, an ID “sample” is assigned to the document element <fig> ofthe document “patent”, and an ID “system” is assigned to the documentelement <fig> of the document “article”. When a figure number is to beentered to the fig, it may be referred by “<refid=“sample”>” in thedocument “patent” and by “<refid=“system”>” in the document “article”.If the document element <fig> itself is shared with the document element<fig> of the document “patent” as the dist and the document element<fig> of the document “article” as the src, the attribute value of thedocument element <fig> of the document “patent” will be “system”.Accordingly, in the document “patent”, the reference by“<refid=“sample”>” cannot be attained and all values of “refid” must beupdated. However, in the present embodiment, since only the content isupdated without changing the attribute, the problem which is encounteredin sharing the document element itself is avoided.

[Embodiment 6]

A system configuration of the present embodiment is identical to that ofthe Embodiment 1 except that the storage 10 is provided with a sharedcontent separation program 15 instead of the content defining program12. It is assumed that the document data is described in a text form andstored in a file. Article data 21 is stored by a file name “art” andabstract data is stored by a file name “abst”.

Referring to a flow chart of FIG. 28, steps S2801-S2803 are essentiallyidentical to the steps S701-S703 of FIG. 7 except that the selection ofthe document in the step S2801 is effected by entering the file name andreading the file.

When the share button is clicked, the shared content separation processis started in a step S2804. Referring to a flow chart of FIG. 29, theprocess is explained. In a step S2901, whether the content of thedocument selected in the src is the shared data or not is determined. Inthe present embodiment, as will be explained later, the shared data ismade independent from the document data. Accordingly, whether it is theshared data or not is determined by examining whether the description isto refer other data or not. If the content is not shared, it is the dataof the article data 21 and the decision is “no”, and the processproceeds to a step S2902. If the content is shared, the description isto refer the shared data in a step to be described later and the processproceeds to a step S2904.

In the step S2902, the content of the document element selected in thesrc is extracted, and it is stored in shared data area 23 (not shown)newly allocated to the auxiliary storage 20 as a storage location. Inthe present embodiment, “defg, hijk” is stored as the shared data 23. Afile name of the shared data 23 is generated. For example, a numeral isadded to the end of the document file name “art” of the src to generate“art01”.

In a step S2903, the description is changed to refer the shared data 23instead of the content of the document element selected in the src. Forexample, in the SGML, description of reference to entity may be used. Inthe document declaration portion, the entity is described to use thecontent of the file “art01” and “& art01;” is described instead of thedocument element content so that the content of the file referred to maybe handled as the document data. Specifically, the portion “defg, hijk”of the article data stored in the file “art” is changed to “& art01;”.

In a step S2904, the description is changed in the dist to refer theshared data 23 instead of the content of the selected document elementas it is in the src. Specifically, the portion “lmno,” of the articledata stored in the file “abst” is changed to “& art01;”.

In this manner, the content of the document element in the dist and thecontent of the document element in the src are shared by referring thesame content separately stored. When the documents of the src and thedist which refer the content of the shared data 23 are subsequentlyredisplayed on the window 41, “defg, hijk” is displayed as shown in FIG.9. When “defg, hijk” in the src which is shared with the dist is changedto “defg, HIJK”, the content of the shared data 23 is changed to“defg,HIJK”. Accordingly, when the document is redisplayed in the dist,the content of the changed shared data 23 is referred to so that theitem 1 of the itemized document is changed to “[ABC]defg.HIJK”.

[Embodiment 7]

In the Embodiment 6, the shared portion is selected in the src and thedist to effect the shared content separation process at the timing ofthe share command.

In the present embodiment, a first half of the shared content separationprocess is effected at the timing of the selection of the object to beshared in the src and the command to offer it as the shared data. Thetiming may be generated by depressing an “offer” button for commandingthe offer.

In this case, the steps S2901 to S2903 of the flow chart of FIG. 29 areexecuted. The reference address (for example, the file name of theshared data) is stored in the share buffer 24 (not shown) in the storage20. A portion of the document in the dist whose content is to berendered identical to that of the shared data is selected, and a latterhalf of the shared content separation process is effected at the timingof the command to share with the designated data. In this case, a stepS2904 of the flow chart of FIG. 29 is executed. The reference address isthat stored in the share buffer 24.

In accordance with the present embodiment, when the contents of a numberof document elements are to be shared with the content of one documentelement, the share permission is declared so that the pointer to thedocument element content is stored in the share buffer, and the documentelement in the dist is detected. Accordingly, the troublesome process ofdisplaying the both documents of the src and the dist and selecting theboth document elements by the mouse is not necessary and the process isefficient.

Further, when the share permission is declared, the shared documentprovider may designate the portion to be shared to prevent undue sharingwith others.

[Embodiment 8]

In the previous Embodiments 6 and 7, the document data is described inthe text form and stored in the file. On the other hand, in the presentembodiment, persistent data in a memory image form is stored in theobject database.

FIG. 30 shows the article data 21 and the abstract data 22 managed inthe object database.

The article data 21 and the abstract data 22 are allocated to differentsegments 51 and 52 for management. Each document element data has anidentification code. Data for a document route has an identificationcode “DOCUMENT” and an element name representing a type of the document.The article data has an element name “article”. It also has a pointer tothe content of the document. The pointer points to a document elementwhich is a first content element.

The document element includes a composite document element having acontent therein and a character element which is a terminal. The formerhas an identification code “NODE” and the latter has an identificationcode “CHAR”. The composite document element has a pointer to a nextelement, an element name representing a type of element, and a pointerto a content of the element. A first document element has an elementname “title”, a pointer to a composite document element having adocument element name “abstract” as a pointer to the next element, and apointer to characters as the content. The character element has apointer to the next element and a character code. The chaining of thepointers terminates when the pointer value is “0”. The process of thepresent embodiment basically follows the flow charts of FIGS. 28 and 29shown in the Embodiment 6 except that the method for referring thestorage location and the method for changing are modified.

In a step S2901, whether the reference has been made or not isdetermined. If the data of the identical segment is pointed to, it isdetermined that the reference has not been made, and if the data ofdifferent segment is pointed to, it is determined that the reference hasbeen made. If the reference has not been made, the process proceeds to astep 52902. In the separation storage, a new segment 53 is allocated andthe content of the document element selected in the src is copiedthereto. A transient data storage status of the database is shown inFIG. 31.

In a step 52903, the pointer to document element content is replaced tothe data in the newly allocated segment 53 in the src. In a step S2904,a pointer to the content of the document element selected in the dist isreplaced to the data in the newly allocated segment 53. A storage statusof the replaced database is shown in FIG. 32. If it is determined in thestep S2901 that the reference has been made, the process proceeds to astep S2904 where the pointer to the document content of the dist isreplaced. In accordance with the present embodiment, the processingspeed is improved since the replacement is done by the memory imagewithout using the file.

[Embodiment 9]

In the Embodiment 8, the respective documents are stored in differentsegments for management. The management may be made without changing thestorage locations by affixing management information to the heads of therespective data.

FIG. 33 shows a data storage format having management information 61 and62 affixed to the heads of a set of data.

A process therefore is basically identical to that of the previousembodiment. In the shared content separation process, managementinformation 63 is generated instead of the allocation of the new segmentand the shared content is reconnected thereto, and the managementinformation 63 is pointed from the document elements of the src and thedist. A result thereof is shown in FIG. 34. In the present embodiment,it is not necessary to change the data storage location and the sharingis attained by mere replacement of the pointer. Thus, the processingspeed is improved.

In this manner, a plurality of document elements may share the samecontent while keeping the consistency of the content, and each documentelement may have the content to be shared with other in the documentstructure of each document element.

[Embodiment 10]

FIG. 36 shows a document with the shared document element. In thisexample, the article data and the abstract data share “defg, hijk”.Since the identical data is not always shared, this display formatcannot discriminate whether it is shared data or not on the display.When only one document data is displayed, it is not clear whether acertain portion is shared with other or not. As a result, the sharedportion might be changed without knowing it so that other document mightbe inadvertently broken.

In the present embodiment, the document data is displayed while theshared portions and the non-shared portions are made identifiable.

FIG. 35 shows a system configuration of the present embodiment. Thehardware configuration is identical to that of the Embodiment 1 exceptthat the content defining program 12 is replaced by a sharingdetermination program 13, a sharing display program 14 and a documentelement display program 15.

FIG. 37 shows an example of the article data 21 managed in the objectdatabase. The abstract data 22 is also managed. The article data 21 hasa document object 2110 as a route. The document object 2110 has anobject type the “DOCUMENT”, a document type “article” and a pointer to adocument content object 2111 which represents the content of thedocument. The document content object 2111 has an object type “content”,a reference count “1” and the substance of the content as a pointer tothe head of the content. Document elements or a character sequencehaving staggered contents may be defined as the content. In the presentexample, the document content object 2111 points to a document elementobject 2112 which is the first element of the content. The referencecount represents the number of document elements which points to thedocument content object as the content of the document element. Sincethe document element content object 2111 consists of the content of onlythe document object 2111, the reference count is “1”.

The document element object 2112 has an object type “ELEMENT”, a pointerto an element which represents a succeeding content and a pointer to anobject which represents the content of the document element. In thepresent example, a document element object 2113 of the element name“abstract” is pointed as the succeeding content, and a document elementcontent object 2114 is pointed. The document element content object 2114points to a character object 2115 which is the content of the head asthe substance of the content.

The character object 2115 has an object type “CHAR”, a pointer to anelement which is a succeeding content and a character code “A”. Acharacter object 2116 having a character code “B” is pointed as thesucceeding content.

In the present embodiment, it is assumed that the content of thedocument element of the document element name “abstract” of the articledata and the content of the document element of the document elementname “itemparagraph” which first appeared in the abstract data areshared. The article data format and the abstract data format are shownin FIG. 38.

A document element content object 2118 which indicates “defg, hijk” ispointed by both of the document element 2113 of the element name“abstract” of the article data and the document element 2217 of theelement name “itemparagraph” first appeared in the abstract data. Areference count of a document element content object 2118 is “2”.

Referring to a flow chart of FIG. 39, a document display process of thepresent embodiment is explained. The display of the abstract data 22shown in FIG. 38 is explained.

First, the abstract data 22 is scanned. In a step S3901, a documentelement object is detected. If it is not detected and the document datais over, the process is terminated. In a step S3902, the sharingdetermination program 12 is used to determine whether the content of thedetected document element is shared with other document element content.This is determined by examining whether the reference count of thedocument element content object pointed by the document element objectis two or larger or not. If it is two or larger, it means that thecontents are shared. If the sharing is detected in the step S3902, theprocess proceeds to a step S3903 where the shared portion is displayedby the sharing display program 14. First, a character sequence “<share>”is displayed and then the document element contained is displayed. Thedisplay and the printout of the document element content in a certainlayout may be implemented by the prior art SGML technology. Finally, acharacter sequence “</share>” is displayed to terminate the sharingdisplay process. On the other hand, if the sharing is not detected inthe step S3902, the process proceeds to a step S3904 where the meredocument element content is displayed. The process returns to the stepS3901 to execute the detection of the next document element. The processhas thus been described.

FIG. 40 shows a display of the abstract data 22. Since the content ofthe shared document element is surrounded by the character sequence“<share>” and “<share>”, the shared portion can be readily identified.

A shared document element might be in the content of a shared documentelement, that is, the shared portion might be nested. For example, it isassumed that the shared document element content includes an enhanceddocument element which is shared with a portion of an index in thearticle data. This is illustrated in FIG. 41.

FIG. 41 indicates that a document element of a document name “emphasis”is present between “e” and “f” of a shared document element content“defg, hijk”, and a content “XYZ” thereof is shared with a content of adocument element of a document element name “keyword” in the index ofthe article data.

The sharing display program 13 may display the character sequence“<share>” as well as the depth of sharing. For example, it is displayedas shown in FIG. 42. In FIG. 42, the depth of the sharing nesting isdisplayed by representing the character sequences “<share>” and“</share>” as “<share1>”, “</share1>”, “<share2>”, “</share2>”. This maybe implemented by providing a sharing nesting counter 103 (not shown) inthe storage 10 to manage the depth of the sharing. When the content ofthe shared document element is displayed, it may be surrounded byspecial characters such as “⋄” and “♦”. The depth of the sharing nestingmay be represented by the number of continuous special characters. Whenthe document data is displayed in a fully marked-up form of the SGML,the use of the special characters to surround the shared portion willfacilitate the watching. An example of display is shown in FIG. 43.

[Embodiment 11]

In the present embodiment, a background color of the shared portion ischanged on the display. A system configuration and document data in thepresent embodiment are identical to those of FIGS. 35 and 37 of theEmbodiment 10.

Referring to FIG. 44, a process is explained. In a step S4401, theabstract data 22 is displayed on the CRT 4. In a step S4402, a documentelement is detected from the abstract data 22. In a step S4403, whetherthe document element content is shared by other document content or notis determined. The determination method is identical to the step S3902of the Embodiment 10 in FIG. 39.

In a step S4404, the background color of the shared document elementcontent portion is displayed in yellow, for example. Preferably, it isdistinguished from a color for designating a range by dragging. Theassociation of the document element object in the memory to the range ofthe displayed document content may be implemented by a structure edit ofthe SGML. The change of the background color is implemented in the Xwindow program. An example of display is shown in FIG. 45. In FIG. 45,the yellow background area is hatched. Instead of changing thebackground color as is done in the present embodiment, a foregroundcolor may be changed.

When a color display is not used, an underscore may be drawn to thedisplayed shared document element content. Where a bit map display isused, it may be surrounded by a frame. When the sharing nesting ispresent, the background color may be changed depending on the depth ofthe sharing nesting.

In the present embodiment, since the special characters or charactersequences other than the content information are not included in thedisplayed document, the difficulty in reading the document data isavoided. Further, whether it is the shared document element or not maybe readily determined without checking the beginning or the end of thedocument element content.

In accordance with the embodiments described above, whether the portionof the document element content is shared with the content of otherdocument element or not can be clearly determined. Accordingly, theportion which, when it is changed, will affect to other document can beclearly identified and undue change of the content to break the othershared document can be prevented.

[Embodiment 12]

In the above embodiment, the shared portion and the non-shared portionare distinguished when the document is displayed. In the presentembodiment, the shared portion is informed to the operator when it isselected for edition.

It is assumed that while a display of FIG. 36 is made, “de” of “defg,hijk” of the document “art” is selected. This may be implemented bydragging the character sequence by the prior art mouse, and the selectedportion is displayed in a distinguishable manner. An example of displayis shown in FIG. 48 in which the selected area is hatched.

A character sequence, for example, “HI” previously copied in a commonarea such as a clip board is substituted by so-called pasting to change“defg, hijk” to “defg, HIjk”. As shown in FIG. 48, “defg, hijk” of thedocument “abst” is also changed to “defg, HIjk”. The change for otherportions may be implemented in a similar manner.

FIG. 46 shows a system configuration of the present embodiment. Thehardware configuration is identical to that of the Embodiment 1 exceptthat the storage 10 has a sharing determination program 13, a contentupdating display program 17 and a sharing notification program 18.

A process of the present embodiment for selecting the update portion ofthe document content and substitute it by a new character sequence isexplained. The selection of document which includes the portion of thedocument to be updated and the direction to substitute by the charactersequence may be implemented by the prior art method. The substitutionprocess for the direction may be implemented in the same manner as thatdescribed in the above embodiment.

It is assumed that in the data structure shown in FIG. 38, thesubstitution of the character sequence is commanded. The control isshifted to the content update program 17. Referring to a flow chart ofFIG. 49, the content update process is explained.

In a step S4901, the selected portion is checked to detect which partialsequence of the content of the document element object it belongs to.This may be implemented by the prior art structure or document handlingtechnique.

Then, in a step 54902, whether the detected document element content isshared with other document element content or not by using the sharingdetermination program 13. For example, the sharing determination program13 determines the sharing when the reference count of the documentelement content object which is pointed by the document element objectis two or larger, and determines as non-sharing if the count is smallerthan two.

Then, if the sharing is determined in the step S4902, the processproceeds to a step S4904, and if the non-sharing is determined, theprocess proceeds to a step S4905.

In the step S4904, the sharing of the object to be updated is informedby using the sharing notification program 18. For example, the sharingnotification program 18 displays an interactive window as shown in FIG.50 to inquire to the operator whether the updating of the document is tobe continued or not. It waits until an “OK” button 48 is depressed, andwhen it is depressed, it returns to a call process. In a step S4905, theconventional content substitution process is carried out and the processis terminated and return to the call process.

In this manner, when the operator attempts to change the shared portion,the interactive window is outputted and the sharing is notified.

[Embodiment 13]

In the above embodiment, when the updating of the shared portion isrequested, the interactive window is displayed to notify that it is theshared portion. Alternatively, the content updating program whichnotifies by ringing a buzzer may be used. Where an audio output isavailable, announcement of “It is shared” may be used. Furtheralternatively, the display may be temporarily switched such as reversal.

[Embodiment 14]

The present embodiment differs in that it uses a content update program171 (not shown) instead of the content update program 17, and uses asharing notification program 181 (not shown) instead of the sharingnotification program 18. The process of the present embodiment up to thecommand to the substitution of the character sequence and the shift ofthe control to the content updating program 171 is identical to that ofthe Embodiment 12.

A process flow chart of the content updating program 171 of the presentembodiment differs only in part from the process flow chart of thecontent updating program 17 shown in FIG. 49. This is explained withreference to a flow chart of FIG. 51.

Steps S5001 to S5003 are identical to the steps S4902 to S4903.

In a step S5004, the sharing of the object to be updated is notified byusing the sharing notification program 181. The sharing notificationprogram 181 returns an operator indication as a return value. Forexample, the sharing notification program 181 display the interactivewindow as shown in FIG. 52 to inquire to the operator whether theupdating of the document is to be continued or not. It waits until the“OK” button 48 or a “cancel” button 49 is depressed, when it returns theresult. The display and the button entry may be implemented by the priorart technology. Next to the step S5004, the process proceeds to a stepS5006. The process is switched in accordance with the return value atthe step S5004. Namely, if the return value is “OK”, the processproceeds to a step S5005, and if it is “cancel”, the process isterminated and returns to the call process. In the step S5005, thecontent substitution process is executed as it is in the step S4905 ofthe Embodiment 12 and the process is terminated and returns to the callprocess.

In accordance with the present embodiment, when the operator attempts toupdate the shared portion, the interactive window is outputted and thesharing is notified and the inquiry is immediately made as to continuethe updating. Thus, the operator may suspend the sharing at this momentif he/she has not noticed the sharing before so that inadvertentupdating is prevented.

In accordance with the present embodiment, when the portion which isshared with other document element is to be updated, the sharing isnotified so that the undesired updating which may affect to otherdocument element can be avoided, and the updating may be executed afterthe confirmation of the sharing.

Although the present invention has been described in its preferred formwith a certain degree of particularity, many apparently widely differentembodiments of the invention can be made without departing from thespirit and scope thereof. It is to be understood that the invention isnot limited to the specific embodiments thereof except as defined in theappended claims.

1. A document processing apparatus for managing a plurality of documentseach containing a plurality of document elements, comprising; a storageconstructed to store a plurality of documents; a first designation meansfor designating unit constructed to designate, from a plurality ofdocument elements of a source document, a first document element havinga first pointer to a first content to be shared with a destinationdocument; a second designation means for designatingunit constructed todesignate from a plurality of document elements of a destinationdocument, a second document element having a second pointer to a secondcontent; and a replacing means for replacingunit constructed todesignate the second pointer with the first pointer so that the seconddocument element designated by said second designation meansunit shouldshare the first content with the first document element designated bysaid first designation meansunit.
 2. A document processing apparatusaccording to claim 1, further comprising: a display control means fordisplayingunit constructed to display the first and second documents ona display; said first designation means unit designating on the displaythe first document element having the content to be shared with thesecond document, from the displayed source document; and said seconddesignation means unit designating on the display the second documentelement from the displayed destination document.
 3. A documentprocessing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said firstdesignation means unit designates the first document element by an orderthereof in the first document and said first designation means unitdesignates the second document by an order thereof in the seconddocument.
 4. A document processing apparatus according to claim 1,further comprising: a storage means for storingconstructed to store thefirst pointer of the first document element designated by said firstdesignation meansunit; and said replacing means unit replacing thesecond pointer with the first pointer stored in said storage means eachtime the second document element is designated by said seconddesignation means unit.
 5. A document processing apparatus according toclaim 4, wherein said first designation means unit designates aplurality of first pointers and said storage means stores the firstpointers with names thereof, and said apparatus further comprising aselecting means for selecting unit constructed to select one of thefirst pointers by specifying the name and said replacing means unitreplaces the second pointer with the one of the first pointers selectedby said selecting means unit.
 6. A document processing apparatus formanaging a plurality of documents each containing a plurality ofdocument elements, comprising: a storage means for storingconstructed tostore document data with file names to be read out by a read commandwith a file name as a content of a document element; a first designationmeans for designatingunit constructed to designate, from a plurality ofdocument elements of a source document, a first document element havingthe read command with a file name of a first content to be shared with adestination document; a second designation means for designatingunitconstructed to designate, from a plurality of document elements of adestination document, a second document element having a second content;a replacing means for replacingunit constructed to replace the secondcontent with the read command by using the file name of the firstcontent as an argument of the command; and a control means foroutputtingunit constructed to output the file content of the file nameas the content of the document element when the document containing thedocument element having the read command with the file name isoutputted.
 7. A document processing apparatus for managing a pluralityof documents each containing a plurality of document elements,comprising: a storage constructed to store a plurality of documents; afirst designation means for designatingunit constructed to designate,from a plurality of document elements of a source document, a firstdocument element having a first content to be shared with a destinationdocument; a separation means for separatingunit constructed to separatethe first content of the first document element designated by said firstdesignation meansunit from the source document; a first definition meansfor definingunit constructed to define such that the first content ofthe first document element separated by said separation means isreferred to by the source document as the content of the first documentelement; a second designation means for designatingunit constructed todesignate, from a plurality of document elements of a destinationdocument, a second document element having a second content; and asecond definition means for definingunit constructed to define such thatthe content of the first document element separated by said separationmeansunit is referred to by the destination document as the content ofthe second document element in place of the second content.
 8. Adocument processing apparatus according to claim 7, further comprising:a display control means for displayingunit constructed to display thefirst and second documents on a display; said first designation meansunit designating the document element from the source document displayedby said display control means unit; and said second designation meansunit designating the document element from the destination documentdisplayed by said display control means unit.
 9. A document processingapparatus according to claim 7, wherein the first document element has afirst pointer to the first content and the second document element has asecond pointer to the second content, said pointer a storage meansstoring a pointer to the document element to be shared and said separatemeans separation unit transporting the first content to a new segment;and said first and second definition means unit defining the contents ofthe first and second document elements by replacing the first and secondpointers with a pointer to the segment, respectively.
 10. A documentprocessing apparatus for managing a plurality of documents eachcontaining a plurality of document elements by setting managementinformation in each document, comprising: a storage constructed to storea plurality of documents; a first designation means for designating unitconstructed to designate, from a plurality of document elements of asource document, a first document element having a content to be sharedwith a destination document; a setting means for settingunit constructedto set new management information to the first document elementdesignated by said first designation meansunit; a control means forcontrollingunit constructed to control the first document elementdesignated by said first designation meansunit to manage by themanagement information set by said setting meansunit in place of themanagement information to the source document; a first definition meansfor definingunit constructed to define to refer the management contentof the management information set by said setting meansunit as thecontent of the first document element in the source document; a seconddesignation means for designatingunit constructed to designate, from aplurality of document elements of a destination document, a seconddocument element having a second content; and a second definition meansfor definingunit constructed to define to refer the management contentof the management information set by said setting meansunit as thecontent of the second document element in the destination document sothat the second document element designated by said second designationmeansunit should share the content with the first document elementdesignated by said first designation meansunit.
 11. A documentprocessing apparatus for managing a plurality of documents eachcontaining a plurality of document elements, comprising: a storageconstructed to store a plurality of documents; a first designation meansfor designating unit constructed to designate, from a plurality ofdocument elements of a source document, a first document element havinga first content to be shared with a destination document; a seconddesignation means for designatingunit constructed to designate, from aplurality of document elements of a destination document, a seconddocument element having a second content; a definition means fordefiningunit constructed to define the first content of the firstdocument element as a sharing content to be shared by the first andsecond document elements; an instruction means for instructingunitconstructed to instruct the display of the source document or thedestination document; a detection means for detectingunit constructed todetect the document element containing the sharing content defined bysaid definition meansunit, from the document instructed to be displayedby said instruction meansunit; and a display control means fordisplayingunit constructed to display the document instructed to bedisplayed by said instruction meansunit in a manner distinguishable thedocument element detected by said detection meansunit from otherelements of the document.
 12. A document processing apparatus accordingto claim 11, wherein said display control means unit displays thedetected document element with specified characters or charactersequences added before and after the document element.
 13. A documentprocessing apparatus according to claim 11, wherein said display controlmeans unit displays the detected document element in a different formthan that for other portions.
 14. A document processing apparatusaccording to claim 11, wherein the documents are nested with respect tothe sharing of the document element content, said detection means unitdetermined the depth of the nesting, and said display control means unitdistinguishably displays the depth of the nesting.
 15. A documentprocessing apparatus for managing a plurality of documents eachcontaining a plurality of document elements comprising: a storageconstructed to store a plurality of documents; a first designation meansfor designating unit constructed to designate, from a plurality ofdocument elements of a source document, a first document element havinga first content to be shared with a destination document; a seconddesignation means for designatingunit constructed to designate, from aplurality of document elements of a destination document, a seconddocument element having a second content; a definition means fordefiningunit constructed to define the first content of the firstdocument element as a sharing content to be shared by the first andsecond document elements; an instruction means for specifyingunitconstructed to specify a document element and instructing the editing ofthe document element; a determination means for determiningunitconstructed to determine whether the document element specified by saidinstruction meansunit contains the sharing content defined by saiddefinition meansunit; and a notification means for notifyingunitconstructed to notify to a user of the determination result if thedocument element is determined to contain the sharing content by saiddetermination meansunit.
 16. A document processing method in a documentprocessing apparatus for managing a plurality of document eachcontaining a plurality of document elements, comprising the steps of:designating, from a plurality of document elements of a source document,a first document element having a first pointer to a first content to beshared with a destination document; designating, from a plurality ofdocument elements of a destination document, a second document elementhaving a second pointer to a second content; and replacing the secondpointer with the first pointer so that the first document element shouldshare the first content with the second document element of the seconddestination document.
 17. A document processing method in a documentprocessing apparatus for managing a plurality of document eachcontaining a plurality of document elements, comprising the steps of:storing document data with file names to be read out by a read commandwith a file name as a content of a document element, in a memory;designating, from a plurality of document elements of a source document,a first document element having the read command with a file name of afirst content to be shared with a destination document; designating,from a plurality of document elements of a destination document, asecond document element having a second content; replacing the secondcontent with the read command by using the file name as an argument ofthe command; and outputting the file content of the file name as thecontent of the document element when the document containing thedocument element having the read command with the file name isoutputted.
 18. A document processing method in a document processingapparatus for managing a plurality of documents each containing aplurality of document elements, comprising: designating, from aplurality of document elements of a source document, a first documentelement having a first content to be shared with a destination document;separating the first content of the first document element designated insaid designating step from the source document; defining such that thefirst content of the first document element separated in said separatingstep is referred to by the source document as the content of the firstdocument element; designating, from a plurality of document elements ofa destination document, a second document element having a secondcontent; and defining such that the content of the first documentelement separated in said separating step is referred to by thedestination document as the content of the second document element inplace of the second content.
 19. A document processing method in adocument processing apparatus for managing a plurality of documents eachcontaining a plurality of document elements by setting managementinformation in each document, comprising the steps of: designating, froma plurality of document elements of a source document, a first documentelement having a content to be shared with a destination document;setting new management information to the first document element;controlling the first designated document element to manage by the setmanagement information in place of the management information to thesource document; defining to refer the management content of the setmanagement information as to the content of the first document elementin the source document; designating, from a plurality of documentelements of a destination document, a second document element having asecond content; and defining to refer the management content of the setmanagement information as the content of the second document element inthe destination document so that the second document element designatedby said second designation means should share the content with the firstdocument element designated by said first designation means.
 20. Adocument processing method in a document processing apparatus formanaging a plurality of documents each containing a plurality ofdocument elements comprising the steps of: designating, from a pluralityof document elements of a source document, a first document elementhaving a first content to be shared with a designation document;designating, from a plurality of document elements of a destinationdocument, a second document element having a second content; definingthe first content of the first document element as a sharing content tobe shared by the first and second document elements; instructing thedisplay of the source document or the destination document; detectingthe document element containing the defined sharing content from thedocument instructed to be displayed; and displaying the documentinstructed to be displayed in a manner distinguishable the detecteddocument element from other elements of the document.
 21. A documentprocessing apparatus method for managing a plurality of documents eachcontaining a plurality of document elements, comprising the steps of:designating, from a plurality of document elements of a source document,a first document element having a first content to be shared with adestination document; designating, from a plurality of document elementsof a destination document, a second document element having a secondcontent; defining the first content of the first document element as asharing content to be shared by the first and second document elements;specifying a document element and instructing the edition of thedocument element; determining whether the specified document elementcontains the sharing content defined in said definition step; andnotifying to a user of the determination result if the document elementis determined to contain the sharing content.
 22. A document processingapparatus for managing a plurality of documents each containing aplurality of document elements, comprising: a storage constructed tostore a plurality of documents; a first designation unit constructed todesignate, from a plurality of document elements of a first document, afirst document element containing a first content to be shared with asecond document; a second designation unit constructed to designate,from a plurality of document elements of a second document, a seconddocument element containing a second content; a revising unitconstructed to revise a content in a document element of one of theplurality of documents; and a sharing unit constructed to share thefirst content between the first document element and the second documentelement by replacing the second content in the second document elementwith the first content, and for updating, in response to a revision ofthe first content in one of the first and second document elements bysaid revising unit, the first content in the other of the first andsecond document elements to be consistent with the revised firstcontent.
 23. The apparatus according to claim 22, further comprising adisplay control unit for displaying the first and second documents on adisplay.
 24. The apparatus according to claim 23, wherein said first andsecond designation unit designate the first document element of thefirst document and the second document element of the second document onthe display, respectively.
 25. The apparatus according to claim 24,further comprising an area specifying unit constructed to specify areain the document on the display; and wherein said first designation unitdesignates a minimum document element including a first area in thefirst document specified by said area specifying unit as the firstdocument element, and said second designation unit designates a minimumdocument element including a second area in the second documentspecified by said area specifying unit as the second document element.26. The apparatus according to claim 23, wherein said display controlunit displays the first content in the first and second documentelements in respective layouts corresponding to the types of the firstand second documents.
 27. The apparatus according to claim 23, furthercomprising detection unit for detecting the document element containinga content shared by said sharing unit, from the document to be displayedby said display control unit, and said display control unit displays thedocument in a manner that the document element detected by saiddetection unit is distinguishable from other elements of the document.28. The apparatus according to claim 23, further comprising: aspecifying unit constructed to specify a document element to be revisedby said revising unit; a determination unit constructed to determinewhether the document element specified by said specifying unit containsa sharing content shared by said sharing unit; and a notification unitconstructed to notify a user of a determination result if it isdetermined by said determination unit that the document element containsthe sharing content.
 29. A document processing method for managing aplurality of documents each containing a plurality of document elements,comprising the steps of: designating, from a plurality of documentelements of a first document, a first document element containing afirst content to be shared with a second document; designating, from aplurality of document elements of a second document, a second documentelement containing a second content; revising a content in a documentelement of one of the plurality of documents; and sharing the firstcontent between the first document element and the second documentelement by replacing the second content in the second document elementwith the first content, and updating, in response to a revision of thefirst content in one of the first and second document elements, thefirst content in the other of the first and second document elements tobe consistent with the revised first content.
 30. The method accordingto claim 29, further comprising the step of displaying the first andsecond documents on a display.
 31. The method according to claim 30,wherein, in said designating step, the first document element of thefirst document and the second document element of the second documentare designated on the display, respectively.
 32. The method according toclaim 30, wherein, in said step of designating the first documentelement, a first area is specified in the first document and a minimumdocument element including the first area is designated as the firstdocument element, and in said step of designating the second documentelement, a second area is specified in the second document and a minimumdocument element including the second area is designated as the seconddocument element.
 33. The method according to claim 30, wherein, in saidstep of displaying the first and second documents on the display, thefirst content in the first and second document elements are displayed inrespective layouts corresponding to the types of the first and seconddocuments.
 34. The method according to claim 30, further comprising thesteps of: instructing to display the first document or the seconddocument; detecting the document element containing a sharing contentshared with another document element from the document instructed to bedisplayed, and displaying the document instructed to be displayed in amanner that the document element detected in said detecting step isdistinguishable from other elements of the document.
 35. The methodaccording to claim 30, further comprising the steps of: specifying adocument element to be revised; determining whether the specifieddocument element contains a sharing content shared with another documentelement; and notifying a user of a determination result if it isdetermined in said determination step that the document element containsthe sharing content.
 36. A computer-readable storage medium storing adocument processing program for controlling a computer to manage aplurality of documents each containing a plurality of document elements,said program comprising codes for causing the computer to perform thesteps of: designating, from a plurality of document elements of a sourcedocument, a first document element having a first pointer to a firstcontent to be shared with a destination document; designating, from aplurality of document elements of a destination document, a seconddocument element having a second pointer to a second content; andreplacing the second pointer with the first pointer so that the firstdocument element should share the first content with the second documentelement of the designation document.
 37. A computer-readable storagemedium storing a document processing program for controlling a computerto manage a plurality of documents each containing a plurality ofdocument elements, said program comprising codes for causing thecomputer to perform the steps of: storing, in a memory, document datawith file names to be read out by a read command with a file name as acontent of a document element; designating, from a plurality of documentelements of a source document, a first document element having the readcommand with a file name of a first content to be shared with adestination document; designating, from a plurality of document elementsof a destination document, a second document element having a secondcontent; replacing the second content with the read command by using thefile name as an argument of the command; and outputting the file contentof the file name as the content of the document element when thedocument containing the document element having the read command withthe file name is outputted.
 38. A computer-readable storage mediumstoring a document processing program for controlling a computer tomanage a plurality of documents each containing a plurality of documentelements, said program comprising codes for causing the computer toperform the steps of: designating, from a plurality of document elementsof a source document, a first document element having a first content tobe shared with a destination document; separating the first content ofthe first document element designated in said designating step from thesource document; defining such that the first content of the firstdocument element separated in said separating step is referred to by thesource document as the content of the first document element;designating, from a plurality of document elements of a destinationdocument, a second document element having a second content; anddefining such that the first content of the first document elementseparated in said separating step is referred to by the destinationdocument as the content of the second document element in place of thesecond content.
 39. A computer-readable storage medium storing adocument processing program for controlling a computer to manage aplurality of documents each containing a plurality of document elements,said program comprising codes for causing the computer to perform thesteps of: designating, from a plurality of document elements of a sourcedocument, a first document element having a content to be shared with adestination document; setting new management information to the firstdocument element; controlling the first designated document element tomanage by the set management information in place of the managementinformation to the source document; defining to refer the managementcontent of the set management information as to the content of the firstdocument element in the source document; designating, from a pluralityof document elements of a destination document, a second documentelement having a second content; and defining to refer the managementcontent of the set management information as the content of the seconddocument element in the destination document so that the second documentelement should share the content with the first document element.
 40. Acomputer-readable storage medium storing a document processing programfor controlling a computer to manage a plurality of documents eachcontaining a plurality of document elements, said program comprisingcodes for causing the computer to perform the steps of: designating,from a plurality of document elements of a source document, a firstdocument element having a first content to be shared with a designationdocument; designating, from a plurality of document elements of adestination document, a second document element having a second content;defining the first content of the first document element as a sharingcontent to be shared by the first and second document elements;instructing to display the source document or the destination document;detecting the document element containing the defined sharing contentfrom the document instructed to be displayed; and displaying thedocument instructed to be displayed in a manner that the detecteddocument element is distinguishable from other elements of the document.41. A computer-readable storage medium storing a document processingprogram for controlling a computer to manage a plurality of documentseach containing a plurality of document elements, said programcomprising codes for causing the computer to perform the steps of:designating, from a plurality of document elements of a source document,a first document element having a first content to be shared with adestination document; designating, from a plurality of document elementsof a destination document, a second document element having a secondcontent; defining the first content of the first document element as asharing content to be shared by the first and second document elements;specifying a document element and instructing the editing of thedocument element; determining whether the specified document elementcontains the sharing content defined in said defining step; andnotifying a user of a determination result if it is determined that thedocument element contains the sharing content.
 42. A computer-readablestorage medium storing a document processing program for controlling acomputer to manage a plurality of documents each containing a pluralityof document elements, said program comprising codes for causing thecomputer to perform the steps of: designating, from a plurality ofdocument elements of a first document, a first document elementcontaining a first content to be shared with a second document;designating, from a plurality of document elements of a second document,a second document element containing a second content; revising acontent in a document element of one of the plurality of documents; andsharing the first content between the first document element and thesecond document element by replacing the second content in the seconddocument element with the first content, and updating, in response to arevision of the first content in one of the first and second documentelements, the first content in the other of the first and seconddocument elements to be consistent with the revised first content.